Tina Fey cracks up the carpet at the debut of This is Where I Leave You

In years past, the festival has begun to taper off around day four. The stars become less dazzling, the press less rabid—but that wasn’t so on Sunday at Roy Thomson Hall. The world premiere of Shawn Levy’s This Is Where I Leave You—an ensemble comedy about a neurotic family brought back under the same roof by the death of its patriarch—was a genuine Rug-O-Stars. Tina Fey said she’d had “100 funs making this movie” and, no, her own family can’t compete with her on-screen clan in terms of craziness, “plus,” she leaned in, “they’d kill me if I said anything.” Jason Bateman, who seems drawn to stories about dysfunctional families, couldn’t explain the obsession, offering only, “I’ll take it, though. It’s nice to have a job.” Then, when Jane Fonda, who is powerfully saucy at 76, was asked if this was the first lesbian love scene she’d done, she stared down the barrel of a nearby news camera and said, “On film—yes.” Suits’ Abigail Spencer was immaculately dressed in a slinky mosaic print by Dolce & Gabbana, and she was happy to show it off at every stop. Costars Adam Driver, Dax Shepard, Kathryn Hahn, and Connie Britton didn’t feel much like talking, but Jonathan Tropper, who adapted his own novel for the screen, had this to say about his decision to set his story, like so many others before it, at a funeral: “There’s basically marriage, death, and sex. If you really want to explore characters and boil them down to their essence, you have to see them in joy or grief. Nobody’s really interested in joy.”